Top 2012 NBA Draft Picks Have Virtual Game Too

John Gaudiosi
, ContributorI've been covering video games, Hollywood and technology for 20 yearsOpinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

The NBA remains a very hot commodity in the video game industry. The NBA Finals Championships had some 16.9 million people tuning in to see LeBron James and the Miami Heat defeat the Oklahoma Thunder in five games. And now the 2012 NBA Draft is one of the deepest in years.

The NBA Draft has seen increased viewership over the last three years, with last year’s draft netting an average of 3.2 million viewers. Over the last five years, the NBA Draft has averaged close to 2.9 million viewers.

This year’s top pick, Anthony Davis, is looking forward to going virtual in this fall’s NBA games. The future of the New Orleans Hornets talks games in the video below.

Davis’ former teammate at Kentucky, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, is also projected to be one of the top picks. And like Davis, he can’t wait to be in the new NBA video games.

Kansas forward Thomas Robinson has been logging a lot of time playing Rockstar Games’ Max Payne 3 of late. He talks about gaming in the video below.

Andre Drummond of UConn, one of the big names vying for an NBA team, talks hoops and video games in the video interview below.

It hasn’t only been the NBA Draft making gains, either. Recent number one overall picks such as the Clippers’ Blake Griffin or the Bulls’ Derrick Rose rank among the top 50 players/coaches in Nielsen and E-Poll’s N-Score rating—which measures endorsement potential—with a score of 31 and 29, respectively.

Griffin and Rose are on the cover of 2K Sports NBA 2K13 game, which will compete with EA SPORTS NBA LIVE 13 this fall for gamers’ wallets – for the first time in several years as Electronic Arts has regrouped for its basketball simulation.